Simple stimuli fail to represent how hearing processes real complex sounds

Evidence

Since the auditory system is highly developed to receive complex sounds from the environment and other communicating subjects, simple stimuli are insufficient for psychoacoustic research. It is increasingly important to study the perception of complex sounds such as: • Harmonic tone complexes; • Complex combination sounds including inharmonic sounds; • Combinations of sinusoids, noises, and pulses; • Speech sounds: real speech and synthetic speech; • Musical sounds: acoustic and electronic music; • Sounds from nature: from animals and inanimate nature; • Noise: harmful, loud, or annoying sounds. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 863

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which complex sounds (speech, music, environmental) best expose hearing functions that simple stimuli mask?